The present invention relates to the storage and dispensing of rolled flexible sheet material. More specifically, the invention relates to an improved toilet tissue dispenser which can store, transfer, and dispense a plurality of toilet tissue rolls in a simple and effective manner regardless of its mounted orientation.
Institutional toilet tissue dispensers are frequently sized and adapted to hold and dispense multiple rolls of toilet tissue. This is desirable to reduce maintenance costs and the possibility that a user may be left without toilet tissue. Existing multiple roll tissue dispensers can basically be classified into four groups.
A first group of multiple roll tissue dispensers expose concurrently two supply rolls to the user for dispensing. A problem with these dispensers is that typically both rolls will be depleted at a similar rate. This is a problem because it forces maintenance workers to replace partially used rolls in order to avoid a situation where a user is left without tissue. This increases waste and supply costs. Alternatively, if the maintenance worker elects not to replace the rolls until the rolls are depleted, the aforementioned problem of placing the user in a position of being without toilet tissue arises. Another disadvantage of dispensers concurrently exposing multiple rolls is that the exposure of the rolls to the environment makes them more susceptible to damage and vandalism.
Multiple tissue dispensers of a second group orient two horizontal rolls side-by-side and include a horizontal sliding cover which alternately covers one roll while exposing the other. Simple free sliding cover designs do protect the storage roll while a primary roll is being used, and serve to encourage depletion of one roll before the other. However, concurrent roll depletion may still occur so that the shortcomings of the first group are not eliminated.
An improved design incorporates a mechanism which requires the supply roll to be completely exhausted and the core torn off before the cover is allowed to be moved to expose the reserve roll. While this improved design eliminates the problem of concurrent roll depletion, it requires that the user perform a sequence of non-intuitive operations: tearing off the core and sliding the cover.
A third group consists of dispensers which protect a reserve roll until the supply roll is depleted and then automatically initiate an action to transfer the reserve roll into the dispensing position. U.S. Pat. No. 1,917,641 issued to Fairchild provides a double roll dispenser which accommodates two horizontal paper rolls coaxially upon a single mandrel. Upon depletion of the supply roll beyond a certain amount, a plate spring biased against an end surface of the reserve roll automatically ejects the depleted supply roll through an aperture in an end gate of the dispenser as the reserve roll is pushed into the dispensing position. This design eliminates the problem of concurrent roll depletion, but gives rise to other problems. With this type of dispenser the depleted core is ejected without warning and could startle the user. Also, this type of automatic ejection typically leads to clutter on the floor, as it is unlikely users will make an effort to find and pick up a core which has been ejected from the dispenser. Furthermore, a problem arises in that the spring biased plate is always pushing the rolls toward the end gate. This creates friction between the supply roll and the end gate, between the two rolls, and between the reserve roll and the spring. This friction could inhibit adversely the rotation of the supply roll when there is a reserve roll on the mandrel.
Another type of automatic ejection system of the third group is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,589 issued to Jespersen. This type of system supports paper rolls by trunnions located within the roll core. However, this system requires split core rolls which are not compatible with standard tissue dispensers.
Dispensers in a fourth group hold in a protected position a reserve roll until the user initiates an action to transfer the reserve roll into a dispensing position. There are three basic variations within this group, as described below.
Horizontal rolls stacked vertically is a dispenser configuration within the fourth group. These dispensers stack two or more rolls vertically with the rotational axes of the rolls extending horizontally, and drop the reserve roll or rolls from a concealed and protected storage position in the top of the dispenser into a dispensing position below. These manual dispensers usually require the user to push the exhausted supply roll backward or downward. A deficiency of these designs is that they do not force complete exhaustion of the supply roll.
Another configuration within this fourth group is horizontal rolls mounted side-by-side. Two such designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,237, issued to Agamite, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,802, issued to Sieber. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,237, the user is required to first tear the core of the exhausted supply roll off the mandrel and then manually move the reserve roll to a dispensing position by pushing it with his or her finger inserted through a recess in the outer casing. One disadvantage of this design is that the step of tearing the core off of the mandrel is not intuitive, nor always easy to accomplish. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,802, the expended core is ejected out an aperture in the sidewall of the dispenser upon the sliding of a handle or button by the user to transfer a reserve roll to a dispensing position. Because the roll transfer requires the user to slide a handle or a button, this design is more difficult to use and is less sanitary than an automatic transfer device.
A third dispenser configuration within the fourth group stacks a plurality of rolls vertically with the rotation axes of the rolls also extending vertically, and protects a reserve roll until the user initiates an action to permit the reserve roll to fall into the dispensing position by gravity. Two such designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,777, issued to Carroll and U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,052, issued to Clarke. A disadvantage of this type of dispenser is that users, being accustomed to the usual horizontal orientation of the dispensing roll, often dislike vertically oriented rolls. In addition, since these dispensers are gravity operated, they must be mounted vertically. This results in a tall and one-position only dispenser that can be difficult to mount conveniently, e.g., in a handicap-bar equipped restroom stall.